Introduction

Hello. My name is Robert Abdalla and I'm a 3rd year pre-law philosophy major. I was born in Pittsburgh PA, but grew up in Granville and Newark Ohio. I have a couple brothers, one substantially older, the other slightly younger.

As far as interests, hobbies, recreational activities, and what not: I enjoy golf, tennis, political philosophy, economics, logic, chess, nature walks, food, and... I suppose it would take me a while to exhaust a list of my enjoyments, so I'll leave it at that.

My writing experience remains limited, which in conjunction with graduation requirements serves as the impetus for me taking this class. Antecedent to attending Ohio U., I served in the U.S. army as an infantryman. Occasionally I wrote letters and short stories as well as maintaining a journal (I use "maintain" loosely, perhaps "occasioned" would be a better fit).

The inspiration for my unsophisticated, stodgy short stories during my time in the army was mostly made up of other short story authors. I enjoy Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver, Hemingway, and others with more-or-less a minimalist bent. I've found inspiration in Joyce (The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man especially), agility in Stephen King (The Body and Shawshank Redemption are of note here), and amusement and fascination in Alexander Dumas. Besides fiction I spend a good deal of time reading history, philosophy--mostly political or Zionist--, and the occasional scientist's memoir.

I believe my strengths and weaknesses as a writer nullify each other, leaving me very average. I think I have a decent vocabulary, but my attempts at precision or perspicuity are invariably frustrated by poor structure and grammar errors--for example, I sometimes use an adjective as an adverb (highlighted in the 2nd paragraph above by my use of "antecedent"), and I consistently have trouble with punctuation.

During this class I hope to improve my ability to communicate my arguments in an effective, professional way. Specifically, I would like to learn how to build on and support my thesis without sounding dull or cluttering my contentions with redundancy.